In light of the Wii U's struggles, some industry vets have suggested that Nintendo begin to think about bringing its long-standing, popular game franchises to new platforms. Can you imagine Mario on the Xbox One or PS4? Well, in a hypothetical situation Nintendo president Satoru Iwata could (and would), but seeing as how he's responsible for the company's long-term success, he won't.
"If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit," Iwata said in an interview with CVG.
He added, "However, I'm really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all."
Iwata stressed that Nintendo's success is based on the ability to create software and hardware that compliment one another.
"What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software – by integrating them, we can be unique," Iwata said. "And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other. And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world."
Nintendo's hardware sales have been pedestrian at best over the past few years. The 3DS, which got off to a sluggish start, has finally rebounded thanks to a price cut and an abundance of must-have games. The Wii U, meanwhile, suffers from a similar problem in that there's just not enough games right now to convince consumers to go out and buy one. And with a low user install base, many third-party publishers/developers are hesitant to bring games to the console. According to Nintendo's latest quarterly financial report, only 160,000 Wii U units were sold worldwide in the three month span ended June 30, 2013.
Would you like to see Nintendo brings its franchises to other platforms?
[CVG]
